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;aphysical Text Book 

FOR STUDENT'S USE. 

SCHOOL ^\t. 



OF 



Metaphysical Science, 

AND 

MENTAL CURE. 



749 TREMONT STREET, 
BOSTON, MASS. 



BOSTON: 
E. P. Whitcomb, 383 Washington Street, 



NOV PS t r 
42 T 44 I" 46 I 48 

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Metaphysical Text Book 



FOR STUDENT'S USE. 






SCHOOL 



OF 



Metaphysical Science, 



AND 



MENTAL CURE. 



749 TREMONT STREET, 
BOSTON, MASS. 






Office Hours for Patients: 9 to 12 a. m., 2 to 5 p. m. 






Copyright, 1885, by H. C. Clark. 



TEXT BOOK 

For Metapby&ical School of Mental Curs 

FOR STUDENTS' USE. 



Question. What is the nature of the study we 
are commencing? 

Answer. Metaphysical; sometimes called Meta- 
physico-Theological. 

Q. Why Theological? 

A. Because belief in Divine power is essential 
to the student in this branch of metaphysics. 
" The efficiency of any remedial agency, must, in 
its last analysis, be referred to a Divine power and 
causation." — MetapJiysics and Ethics. Bowen. 

Q. What does Divine power and causation 
mean, as applied to the material universe? 

A. The immediate agency of the Deity. " Of 
all habits of thinking, the most important to be 
cultivated, is that of referring all the phenomena 
of nature, up to their infinite Creator, and of 
regarding all events, whether physical or moral, 
as caused or governed by an ever watchful Provi- 
dence." — BOWEN. 



4 METAPYSICAL SCIENCE. 

Q. What is the formal cause of any thing? 

A. The internal constitution, or that which 
makes a thing what it is. 

Q. What is the efficient cause? 

A. The efficient cause signifies the maker or 
producer of any thing. 

O. What is the final cause? 

A. The final cause of anything is, the end or 
purpose for which it was made. "All the ele- 
ments of life and being come from God, because 
He alone is, of Himself; all these elements are 
elements of His Life, imparted to His creatures 
to be their life." — Parson's Dcus Homo. 

O. What is Physical Science? 

A. Things " which exist distinct from our 
thoughts." 

O. What is Metaphysical Science? 

A. Things which do not exist apart from our 
thoughts. "All objects of human knowledge are 
divided into two classes, perfectly distinguishable 
from each other ; a distinct method of investigation, 
and a peculiar logic or reasoning process, being 
applicable to each. The conclusions at which we 
arrive in the two cases, are equally well founded, 
equally deserving of confidence; but they differ 
widely in the kind or character of the conviction 



METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 5 

on which they rest, and .in the nature of the 
process by which they were obtained." 

Q. What does the word science suggest to your 
mind? 

A. Certain knowledge. 

Q. How has scientific knowledge become 
attainable to all? 

A. By the methodical study of many, who 
arriving at the same conclusions, prove certain 
laws of nature and events to be immutable, and 
that science is knowledge, certain and evident in 
itself. 

Q. How must intellectual and moral progress 
begin? 

A. By a thorough understanding of the science 
or truth we study. " Science in its most general 
acceptation, denotes knowledge of every descrip- 
tion." — Thomas Dick. 

O. In what way are we often hindered from 
acquiring knowledge? 

A. We are often hindered in our quest for 
knowledge, by the fear of giving up old opinions 
and prejudices, which we had accepted as truths. 
Change of opinion is acknowledgement of past 
error, and we are reluctant to adopt ideas we have 
but just come to understand. 



6 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

Q. Are we liable to form opinions, we may 
wish to change? 

A. We are, as, being human, we are not 
unchangable. 

0. How can the knowledge of things past be 
of use to us? 

A. By teaching us to avoid the errors others 
have fallen into? 

O. How can we use the knowledge of the 
present time for our own improvement? 

A. By opening our minds to the reception of 
new ideas or discoveries, and making them useful 
to ourselves and others. "True comprehensive 
wisdom is to say, let the truth come boldly in 
from all quarters." 

O. What is the difference between a fact and an 
abstraction? 

A. A fact is an object of sense ; something 
which can be seen, heard or touched, while an 
abstraction is a mental conception. 

Q. What knowledge should we seek to instruct 
others in, who would study the science of mind or 
spirit? 

A. Self-knowledge. 

Q. Is self-knowledge attainable? 




METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 7 

A. It is, to a certain extent. John Mason has 
asserted that "it is attainable by all." 

O. Are conclusions formed by one student to 
be accepted as scientific conclusions, or as certain 
knowledge? 

A. They are not. Knowledge is only made a 
certainty by the united study and research of 
many students, or inquirers after truth. 

O. How do you understand Metaphysics? 

A. As a speculative science which soars beyond 
the bounds of experience ; the word is also used 
to distinguish the philosophy of mind from that 
of matter. " Matter is essentially complex and 
divisable ; the smallest particle of it has still an 
upper and under side, and we can conceive of 
these two being separated from each other Mind 
or person is essentially indivisable." — Bo\YEX. 

Q. What is man in a metaphysical sense? 

A. A being of perceptions, intelligence and 
activity. "The idea of self belongs to the same 
category with all our simple sensations, and with 
all our abstruse ideas of time, space, motion, and 
the like." — Metapliysics and Ethics, 

O. What do we call the outward appearance by 
which we know, an,d are known to each other? 

A. The material body. 



8 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

Q. What is the idea of self, passing into thought 
and action? 

A. Soul or Spirit; clothed with a " garment of 
flesh," as the material body is sometimes called. 
" The organical body with which the soul 
clothes itself, is here compared to a garment, 
because a garment invests the body; and the soul 
also puts off the body, and casts it off as an old 
coat, when it emigrates by death from the natural, 
its own, to spiritual world; for the body grows 
old like a garment, but not the soul, because this 
is a spiritual substance, which has nothing to do 
with the changes of nature, which advance from a 
commencement to an end, and are periodically 
terminated. — SwEDENBORG. 

Q. Can the material body be influenced by 
Soul, or Spirit? 

A. It can. " The highest form of existence is 
that of a truly religious life, which in its essence is a 
harmonious union of goodness and truth, love and 
wisdom, benevolence and faith in the character 
and activity of the individual. Where intellect 
and love are harmoniously blended, and act in 
perfect concordance, the resulting product is 
spiritual power." — E van's Divine Law of Care. 

Q. How may the soul be elevated above 
material things? 

A. By contemplation and the Grace of God. 



METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 9 

" God hath power to help and to cast down " — 
2 Citron, xxv: 8. "To help," to lift us up to a 
higher state of being, — or " to cast down/' if we 
have no desire to draw near to him. 

O. Is spiritual intelligence a power in the cure 
or healing of disease? 

A. It is, if rightly understood. 

Q. What is the philosophy or science of mind 
sometimes called? 

A. Psychology. " The knowledge of the mind 
and its faculties, which is derived from examina- 
tion of the fact of consciousness ; metaphysics." — 
Worcester. 

" Psychology is the latest designation in use, 
and perhaps the most convenient one, for that 
science which bears the same relation to mind, 
that anatomy and physiology do to our corporeal 
nature." — Adam's Elements of Christian Science. 

" But it is certainly no part of psychological 
inquiry to seek after the origin of our notion of 
cause, or to analyze our idea of infinity. Obser- 
vation cannot aid us here. In the external 
world, and in the succession of our thoughts, we 
witness only events or changes ; we observe only 
sequences of phenomena ; and to bind together 
the two terms of a sequence, in the relation of 
cause and effect, is the work of pure reason, 



10 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

unaided by the perceptive faculty. So also, 
whatever we observe, whether in external nature, 
or in the world within us, is finite, limited and 
contingent ; the idea of infinity is superadded by 
reason, transcending the sphere of sense and 
reflection, and baffling even the power of the 
imagination to seize and comprehend it. Our 
ideas of space and time, are abstract conceptions, 
which rise indeed, on occasion of experience, but 
cannot be deduced from experience, nor explained 
by its teachings. To speculate on these things is 
the work of metaphysical philosophy, so called, — 
of that science which goes beyond facts to princi- 
ciples, which begins from intuitions, and ends 
in demonstrative certainty. — "BOWEN. 

Q. What are the two states of man's existence? 

A. Consciousness and unconsciousness. Wak- 
ing with the light, and sleeping with the darkness. 
The unconscious state of mental action, would be, 
if fully understood, a revelation indeed. 

Q. When are the mental powers the most 
active ? 

A. Between sleeping and waking. " On the 
dividing line, between sleeping and waking, the 
mysterious dream-land, the mental powers become 
greatly exalted and quickened, so that the experi- 
ences and perceptions of hours, and even weeks, 
and months, are crowded into moments." — 
Evan's Mental Cure, 



METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. II 

Q. In what state of mind should we seek the 
interior light? 

A. The mind should be receptive and passive, 
forgetting material things, and allowing the 
spiritual to enter. " In this condition of abstrac- 
tion from the world of sense, the spirit is received 
that teaches all things and guides unto truth." — 
Evan's. 

Q. What is the receptive state? 

A. It is a silence of the mind, with every 
outward thing banished from thought. " Speech 
is of time, Silence of Eternity/' — Thomas 
Carlyle. 

" Every method of cure, in order to its success, 
must conform its thereupathic devices to the 
Divine operation in nature, and these can only 
accelerate and intensify the natural process of 
healing." — Evan's Divine Law of Cure. 

Q. What are thereupathic devices? 

A. Thereupathic devices are means employed 
to restore health, defined as the " art of 
restoring health." 

Q. How does art differ from science? 

A. Science being defined as " knowledge," we 
may say science teaches us to know, so, in " art 
truth is a means to an end ; in science it is the 
only end. 



12 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

Q. Can Theology be called a science? 

A. Theology is defined as " the science which 
treats of the existence, nature and attributes of 
God ; and of his relations to man ; the true 
doctrine concerning God, and the duty which 
ought to be rendered him by man." 

" There are few, however, who attain to a full 
understanding of this Divine science, to the 
elevation of mind, which enables the Divine light 
to illumine the soul." — Evan's 

Emanuel Swedenborg's life best illustrates the 
elevation of mind mentioned above. 

Q. In what way? 

A. In his conscious knowledge of heavenly 
things, his spiritual eyes seem to have been 
opened to look upon imperishable things. 

O. What is man in a spiritual sense? 

A. A manifestation of God. 

" However strange it may seem, it is never- 
theless true that this higher view of God, and of 
our relation to him, which arises naturally out of 
the profoundest religious consciousness, and 
feeling, has almost always been viewed by more 
superficial minds, as equivalent to Atheism." 
— Institute of Metaphysics. 

O. What is the nature of Divine influence on 
the human mind? 



METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. I 3 

A. Its nature is to enlighten the understanding, 
and divest it of error or prejudice. " It is written 
they shall all be taught of God." — John vi: 4.5. 

Q. How are we to understand the words 
spiritual physician, as we do not class ourselves 
with so-called mediums? 

A. When we use the words " spiritual physi- 
cian," we mean one whose spiritual perception is 
quickened by Divine love. 

Q. Where shall we seek the interior light? 

A. This question can be best answered by the 
promise " Ask and ye shall receive." 

Q. In what sense are the words Divine opera- 
tion used? 

A. In that of exercising spiritual power and 
vitality, which is the Divine force within us. 

Q. Is self-help possible to a phrenopathic 
patient? 

A. It is. The desire to be helped is in itself 
sufficient. Belief in the method of cure is an aid, 
but not a necessity. 

Q. What is phrenopathy? 

A. A practical and theoretical system of 
mental cure. 



14 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

Q. How may we gain knowledge concerning 
this method of cure? 

A. Theory and practice are essential, but we 
should endeavor to think more of spiritual, and 
less of material things, turning our thoughts 
inward, as spiritual power comes from within. 

" For of the soul the body form doth take, 
For soul is form, and doth the body make." — Spencer. 

" But ' made in the image of God,' as God has 
of himself power, so is man given of himself to 
have power, to originate it, to apply it ; it is a 
faculty of his being, a gift that God has given 
him ; originating in himself freely, apart from the 
causal necessity of motive." — Elements of 
Christian Seience. 

Q. Does bodily strength add to our happiness? 

A. We are so constituted as to be, in a great 
degree, dependent upon bodily strength for 
happiness and enjoyment. We must then, so far 
as it is possible to do so, forget bodily weakness, 
and bring our imagination to bear on the one idea, 
that the more active our thought, which is 
creative of a better state of health and strength, 
the more likely we are to realize our ideal state 
of health and happiness. 

Q. What is the true use of imagination? 

A. Imagination enables us to form ideal 



METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 1$ 

pictures of something better than we have for- 
merly known, as, to imagine the beauty of 
pictures we have not seen, of a country through 
which we have never traveled, even a life beyond 
the present. 

Q. What is Faith? 

A. Faith is a reality. 

" Paul says, in the great epistle to the Hebrews, 
' Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen.' If instead of calling 
faith the substance of things hoped for, he had 
called it the shadow or type of things hoped for, 
just as he calls faith the evidence of things not 
seen, instead of the things themseves — there 
would have been little or no difficulty in the 
definition, perhaps. But Paul never uses words 
without meaning, and when he calls faith the 
substance, we are bound to believe that he 
meant just what he said, and that faith — Scrip- 
tural faith — is indeed something more than a 
type or a fore-shadowing — a comfort, a consola- 
tion, or a hope. In other words, we are to 
understand by the word, a substantial and abiding 
assurance." — John Neal. 

Q. What is the prayer of faith? 

A. The prayer of faith is made with the belief, 
that, if it is God's will, our prayer will be 
answered. "And faith alone can heal the mind." 
— M. F. Tupper. 



1 6 METAPHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

0. What is Spiritual Reason. 

A. The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The faith of Jesus Christ is that alone, which 
as its Supreme Law, perfects the Reason of Man. 
— ADAM'S Christian Science. 



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